Made.com, furniture retailer raises $60 million for business expansion

Made.com, upmarket online furniture retailer, has raised $60 million in a funding round led by Partech Ventures and Fidelity Growth Partners to accelerate its expansion into Europe.

Founded in 2010 by Ning Li, Julien Callede and Chloe Macintosh, Made is an online retailer specializing in furniture. It has recently opened a showroom in London’s Soho, and has collaborations with more than 50 designers. The site deals with items at princes up to 70% below their high-street rates, and targets to become Europe’s leading online destination for home design. The company sells its products in UK, France, Germany, Italy Netherlands and Belgium. During the last six months of the previous year, international revenues accounted for 24% of group sales.

CEO of the company Ning Li said, “The strength of the trading through the year, in what remains a challenging consumer environment, is testament to Made.com’s compelling customer proposition, its expanding and unique product offering and its fast fashion business model.”

With the new finance, the company plans to fund the international territories aggressively and to improve products and sales. The deal was closed months ago but the $31 figure quoted in April fell far below the final deal value. “we wanted to raise less money but we were oversubscribed,” said Li. The already existing investors of the company took part in this funding round. Despite of funding rounds, the majority of stake still lies with the founders.

The deal follows two years of good growth in the European market for Made. “France and Italy, our first non-UK territories, have proven the business case,” said Li. ” We have decided to accelerate our European expansion.”

The investor, Partech functions in Paris, Berlin and Silicon valley, has backed internet start-ups such as Getinsured.com and Secretsales.com, which deals with designer fashion brands online. FGPE is an investor in companies including Notonthehighstreet and Seatwave, the online ticketing marketplace.

To assist in the company’s expansion, Li has hired Susanne Given, former chief operating officer at the fashion retailer Super Group and former John Lewis buying director to the Made board. Partech Ventures Bruno Cremel will also join the board further to the funding.

“These retail executives have operated businesses at much larger scale and complexity. There will be growth pain ahead but we have the expertise in place to go from a start-up to a European retail business,” said Li. He also added, “The model is very scalable because we operate online. To triple revenue, we don’t need to triple headcount because we don’t open shops.” International sales right now hit 30% of turnover, which is expected to hit 50% in near future.